House prices set to rise in 2014 to hit new peak

The time before the recession hit the UK was the period where the market in properties for sale was at its very strongest, with a number of records broken in 2007 as prices soared higher and higher.

And this could be set to return across the next year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The organisation said that a number of different governmental deals brought in over the course of the last 12 months will impact positively to see house prices swell throughout 2013 and 2014.

This year, the value of homes is set to exceed that seen at the tail end of 2012, with final sales set to sit at around £220,000 on average, marking an annual rise of 1.4 per cent.

There will be even better news for sellers in 2014, when the prices are set to continue to rise at a rate that will see them hit a higher value than the peak in 2007. Prices are set to be 2.7 per cent better than they were before the recession.

Among the governmental plans and schemes that have been praised in recent times is the Help to Buy initiative that was launched at the Budget, where the chancellor said the NewBuy scheme would also be opened up to existing property buyers.

The CEBR said it hoped that the extension of this policy would see around 5,000 new homes built by the end of 2015 to help increase home ownership across the nation.

In addition to this, the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) has helped to bring a number of different buyers onto the ladder by allowing banks and mutuals to approve a far greater number of mortgages than they have done in the past.

The good news was not all for sellers though, as landlord insurance customers have also been supported recently by the news the government is set to introduce a boost to the build to let market, which sees a fund of £1 billion available to bring brand new houses into the private rental sector.